Laffey was non-tendered by the Royals earlier this month and actually turned down a pre-tender deal from the club in order to find an opportunity to pitch as a starter. The 26-year-old left-hander posted a 3.88 ERA and 30/21 K/BB ratio over 53 1/3 innings this past season as a reliever between the Mariners and Yankees.

Laffey averages around 87 mph on his fastball and has a pretty awful 185/149 K/BB ratio over 373 2/3 innings in the big leagues, so he likely wouldn’t fare very well as a starter in the American League East. Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca reports that the Jays will give the soft-tossing southpaw an opportunity to compete for a spot in the rotation during spring training, but if he actually makes a start for Toronto in 2012, something probably went very wrong.

Meh. Whatever. His splits, rights vs lefites, are nothing special. He showed some signs last season of being able to get outs to the point that his ERA dropped under 4, but really, 10IP? Need I say more. Wants to be a starter, eh? Right. And I want to be Minka Kelly’s boyfriend: neither one of us is replacing Jeter or anyone else who trots out for the first inning of a ballgame. I hope he can live with the disappointment.